The style of writing illustrated above is the one most
commonly seen in Hebrew books. It is referred to as block print or sometimes
Assyrian text.

For sacred documents, such as torah scrolls or the scrolls
inside tefillin and mezuzot, there is a special writing style with "crowns"
(crows-foot-like marks coming up from the upper points) on many of the
letters. This style of writing is known as STA"M, an acronym for
"Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzot," which is where you will
see that style of writing. For more information about the STA"M alphabet,
including illustrations and relevant rules, see Hebrew Alphabet used in
writing STA"M.

There is another style used for handwriting, in much
the same way that cursive is used for the Roman (English) alphabet. This
modern script style is illustrated at above.

Another style is used in certain texts to distinguish
the body of the text from commentary upon the text. This style is known
as Rashi Script, in honor of Rashi, the greatest commentator on the Torah
and the Talmud. Rashi himself did not use this script; it is only named
in his honor. The alefbet at above is an example of Rashi Script.